Blues musician Lloyd Spiegel is making Spruce Grove his first trip to Alberta.

The Australian entertainer has won 11 Australian Blues Music Awards, been singing since he was four and began going on tours at the tender age of 12.

Now, Spiegel, 40, is taking his first steps into Canada to promote his latest album. He will be stopping at Horizon Stage later this month to help begin their season.

He says he was destined for the life and had direct access to a blues legend as a boy.

“A man by the name of Dutch Tilders lived in the bungalow in my backyard,” he said. “He brought the blues into Australia from the Netherlands and I thought everyone had at least someone like him around and that it was completely normal.”

Spiegel began playing in clubs and making a name for himself in the Melbourne area after getting acquainted with the genre through his famous houseguest and the influence of relatives. He says his early years were spent grinding and, through a chance encounter, he managed to break out of where he was into better things.

“[It was 1995] and before the internet was a really big deal, I had a CD that was floating around with a couple of great tunes on it,” Spiegel said. “A fellow by the name of Brownie McGhee somehow got it, called the number on the back which connected to my dad’s auto shop and asked me if I wanted to join his band.”

Thing was, McGhee was in the United States.

Spiegel’s family was undeterred and six seeks later he was on a plane and making his way to a country he had never seen and only known through film and television. McGhee died while they were touring and Spiegel had to make his way through America on his own in the wake of the death of his artistic mentor.

He looks back fondly on the time and says he first knew he fit the music there.

“Being a blues musician in Australia you were always a bit out of place,” he said. “In America, I was somewhere I belonged and it felt so amazing to be accepted.”

Tours through New Zealand, Europe, Japan and sitting in with legends like Ray Charles and Bob Dylan are highlights that have peppered his 30 years of making music. Spiegel added these legends did not seem human to him and, looking back on the times their paths crossed, he is struck by how such simple things brought them together for performances he never imagined he would take part in.

“When you play these enormous theatres and someone like Ray Charles follows you, you slap yourself,” Spiegel said. “All I really did was play the guitar.”

In the future he will continue that simple work that has so blessed his life with good fortune. In the meantime, he will soon perform and tell stories for Canadian audiences and is hoping to take in some of the local attractions of the Tri-Region.

“I love to go and see big things,” he said. “Like when you put a big thing in town like the biggest axe in the world, people will come out and see it.”

Spiegel will perform Sept. 21 at Horizon Stage in Spruce Grove. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. and tickets can be purchased through horizonstage.com.